Magazine Aint Bad talks us through its diverse themes and contributors

Now in its 7th year of publishing, Aint Bad, the magazine of new photographic art founded in Savannah, Georgia, is revisiting one of its core themes and values, collaboration. Each issue starts with an open call, from which a group of photographers decide on a selection. For Issue 13, the curators chose “a diverse group of artists who are making work in just about every way possible”; “each one of them expressing extremely personal and often universal experiences, each project emanating passion for people, place and planet”, according to a statement from the magazine.

Here, Taylor Curry, the designer at Aint Bad takes us through some of his picks from the latest issue.

Zora J Murff

Zora J Murff

Zora J Murff

“We’ve been following Zora and his work since 2014, when we first met him through our good friend and educator, Jeff Rich. We had the opportunity to publish his first monograph, Corrections, in 2015, which showcases the work he was making while attending school at the University of Iowa. Zora has become one of the strongest young contemporary photographers today, and we’re so honoured to continue to showcase his work as he continues to impress the photographic community.”

Of his project, At No Point In Between, Zora says: “[It] prompts inquiry into how racial violence has been recorded through images, and how these same images can be used to interrupt collective belief. I accomplish this by invoking the notion of the photographic archive; and reinterpreting complex narratives about race, power and violence… In this body of work, witnessing is intertwined with critical analysis, and I provide a deeper understanding of systemic white supremacy and the resulting violence therein.”

Alexis Pike

Alexis Pike

“We only became aware of Alexis when she submitted her work for this issue, she immediately stood out to us as a talented artist. Alexis’ work is focused on the American West, and she’s truly one to watch – we’re excited to announce that we’ll be publishing her first monograph, Color Me Lucky, in spring 2019!”

Of her work, Alexis says: “When I was 6, I wanted to be just like Evel Kneivel – the ultimate daredevil – and Color me Lucky is inspired by his swagger. It’s about the momentum that carries you forward, even when you know there’s a train-wreck ahead. It opens up a conversation about what attracts people to act on or witness risky behaviour for the sake of a thrill.”

Nancy Floyd

Nancy Floyd

“Nancy is one of our favourite photographers we’ve worked with in our many years of publishing. Her dedication to the medium and her long-term body of work is incredible – and we’re so happy to learn that she’s just been awarded the 2018 Aaron Siskind Foundation Grant.”

Of her project, Weathering TimeNancy says: “I’ve been photographing myself since 1982. The visual calendar consists of more than 2,500 photographs, which include my body from head-to-toe, as well as my environment. Most often I’m by myself, but sometimes I’m with family and friends. As time passes, births, deaths, celebrations and bad days happen. Pets come and go, fashion, hairstyles and technology evolve. Not only does Weathering Time chronicle my youth to the dawn of my old age; the images reflect the experience of my generation, and underscore the cultural, technological and physical changes that have occurred over the last 35 years”.

Maury Gortemiller

Maury Gortemiller

“We were first introduced to Maury when he submitted to issue 08 of Aint Bad, which was focused on the American South. We love Maury and his passion for the Southern regions of the US. His body of work, Do the Priest in Different Voices, has been on our radar since 2014, and we are beyond excited to announce that we’ll be publishing this work in his first monograph, which’ll be released in spring 2019!”

Of his work, Maury says: “My most profound childhood memory involves reading a family bible. The illustrations don’t function as mere visual embodiments of the text, but rather communicated a far more powerful language, evoking both comfort and trepidation. The words of the book provided little interest, but the imagery moved me to contemplate the unseen. While I’m ambivalent towards the old established narratives, the semblance of the mythical in the mundane enthrals me. I identify this conflict in the everyday: objects and situations that are alternately ineffable, laughable, and at times terrifying.”

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“I think with photography you can create a whole fantasy around yourself, so when I design a set and develop a character for a picture, I try to create an entirely new reality for me and the people I’m portraying, hopefully, a reality that is better than the actual one,” explains México City-based photographer Andrés Mañon. With several commissions for the likes of i-D Mexico under his belt, Andrés’ work does exactly as he intends, building elaborate worlds full of over-saturated, yet altogether compelling characters.

A little while ago, art director Anna Sullivan spotted an old vintage postcard featuring stilt walking shepherds. Stilt walking shepherds! Curious, as anyone in their right mind would be, Anna started digging into why these shepherds were atop stilts — which we now only associate with childhood games and circus performances — to herd sheep.

It’s Nice That’s Ones to Watch shines a light on 12 emerging talents who we think will conquer the creative world in 2018. From a global pool of creative talent, we have chosen our 2018 Ones To Watch for their ability to consistently produce inspiring and engaging work across a diverse range of disciplines. Each of our selections continually pushes the boundaries of what is possible with their creative output. Ones to Watch 2018 is supported by Uniqlo.

“The way it currently stands, we as queer Arabs don’t have extensive (if any) documentation of our queer past and tend to refer to the West for reference and history,” explains Beirut born-and-raised photographer, filmmaker and editor-in-chief of Cold Cuts magazine, Mohamad Abdouni. Through both his commissioned and personal work, Mohamad is looking to change this fact, documenting the community he is apart of, and the culture it is beginning to thrive within.

Through a series of events, housemates Julia Falkner and Lorena Hydeman found themselves styling the 11-year-old nephew of a friend in clothes from their suitcases, photographing him as he discovered a new world of gender expression. The experience proved formative – both for young Kai and the duo – and it sparked what would become Julia (a photographer) and Lorena’s (a stylist) recently released series Blah Blah Genitals.

“This summer was just a dream, and I hope that these images help to capture a little bit of that,” says photographer Max Miechowski of his latest series Burgess Park. “After moving to southeast London in 2017, Burgess Park became one of my favourite places in the city,” he continues. “The atmosphere there is like nothing I had experienced before, and I felt drawn to spend time in the park and to photograph the space and its community.”

It’s been a long year, hasn’t it? And your eyes are tired, aren’t they? We can help. Why not soothe those sore lids by taking a visual stroll down recent-memory lane with 25 of our most read photography pieces of 2018? From KangHee Kim’s satisfyingly shimmering images of celestial streetlamps to Sam Gregg’s gloriously vivid snapshots of life in sun-soaked Naples, all of life this year gone is here.
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Film, all things considered, is a pretty good medium. Over the past 12 months we’ve covered all sorts, from documentaries detailing the daily lives of London’s North Korean immigrant community to a chef-heavy music video by the much-loved rapper Loyle Carner. We like film. And you evidently do, too, if this Top 25 film-related It’s Nice That pieces from 2018 is anything to go by.
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We count ourselves incredibly lucky here at It’s Nice That, largely because we come into contact with such superb examples of illustration on a daily basis. As you can see from the features below, which were the 25 most read on the site over the past 12 months, the bulk of what comes our way is good. Really good. Lap up the creme de la creme below. You deserve it. After all, you got these pieces where they are today.

You can’t have failed to notice how much attention It’s Nice That focuses on graphic design. This year we have, as ever, cast a gaze over everything from big name commercial work to the fantastic self-initiated projects that feel as fresh now as they did the first day they arrived perfectly formed in our inbox. Practitioners and enthusiasts alike, consider this a crash course in the year that was in graphic design.
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Animation’s in our blood at It’s Nice That. Ever since we first crawled into virtual being all those years ago, we’ve never stopped looking for the brightest and best of the animated world. If you’re looking for a fun way to soak up some creative juices over the Christmas period, why not peruse the top 25 animation articles we’ve published this year? You won’t regret it.
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From Burberry getting a new logo courtesy of Peter Saville to Marina Abramović promising to electrify herself with one million volts in the name of art, via Taylor Swift butting heads with Spike Jonze over allegations of copy-catting, and the release of a new typeface that claims to be able to boost your memory, a lot has happened in the creative world since we said hello to January back in, well, January.

As we start thinking about boarding packed trains to various parts of the country, letting It’s Nice That have a bit of time to itself, we’d like to take this opportunity to share with you, dear readers, the 100 most read articles we published in 2018. We’ve got news, work posts, and features – all of which explore the breadth of contemporary creativity. Thanks for reading!
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We’re not sure about you, but there’s something about this time of year that makes everyone here at It’s Nice That want to curl up on the sofa with a decent long read. Handy, then, isn’t it, that we’ve curated this bumper batch of the best features we’ve published on the site in 2018? They’re practically crying out to be consumed with a fistful of Pringles and an ill-advised second glass of snowball.
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As the year draws to a close and we reflect on the creative comings and goings 2018 has brought, York-based illustrator Adam Higton and French illustration duo Maxime Prou and Adéle Favreau, otherwise known as Atelier Bingo, have been working away interpreting the 12 months of the year into an A4 poster. Collaborating over Dropbox Paper, the group’s final illustrative interpretation will be available for free at our monthly event, Nicer Tuesdays.

“Illustrating data is hard,” says Mona Chalabi. Given that Mona is a data journalist who specialises in illustration, she’d know. Over the past few years, London-born, New York-based Mona has produced work for the likes of the International Organization for Migration, the Bank of England, and superstar statistician Nate Silver’s number-heavy editorial platform FiveThirtyEight.

Quickly coming out just as we reach the end of the creative year is Kim Gehrig’s newest advert, Viva La Vulva for Libresse. And, in true Kim style, it’s arguably one of the most joyful, inclusive and confidence-boosting pieces of advertising of 2018.

Emulsion is a new publication documenting cutting-edge arts and culture. Designed by the London-based design studio Our Place, the magazine is founded on pluralistic objectives with the hopes of pushing boundaries through its imaginative design and content. Its first issue is packed with artist interviews, photography, fashion, music, original artworks and opinion pieces from the likes of some of It’s Nice That’s favourite creatives including Jonathan Castro and Ida Ekblad.

Hwashin Choi’s illustrations reject the flat and digital styles of working that are so popular today. Instead, she repurposes traditional modes of realist drawing for a contemporary audience, paying close attention to how light falls on objects and the characterisation of objects and facial expression.

If ever you wanted to examine the human relationship to, and reliance on, the very resources which make up our world and how this fundamentally shapes everything we are, you need look no further than the Caspian Sea. Located at the intersection of Asia and Europe, it is the world’s largest inland body of water and one of the oldest and most important oil and natural gas-producing regions on Earth.

Over the past 12 months, Google has been delving deep into the fascinating world of machine learning with articles on Google Design, plus new open-source projects and products. With AI becoming an increasingly prevalent part of the creative world, this should come as no surprise. Also unsurprisingly, the work it’s carried out in the field is innovative, exciting, and stimulating.

2018’s Review of the Year is supported by Google Design. Google Design, for the uninitiated, is an initiative led by an uber-talented selection of developers, designers, and writers at Google. They’re all about working across teams to create top-notch content and to produce events that champion creativity and showcase the brilliant design work Google does day in and day out. Having celebrated a Milan Design Week debut, amongst other achievements, it feels like Google Design has pushed on from an already exciting position.

We’ve decided to look back on a quartet of projects that turned our head in 2018. For more, check out Google Design’s Best of 2018, where the editorial team highlights all of the year’s noteworthy design projects.h3. Google Fonts + 한국어 소개

Emily Oberman can hardly believe her luck. The designer, a partner in Pentagram’s New York office since 2012, is a self-professed Harry Potter “super fan” and for the past three years has been working to bring some of the newest projects in the wizarding universe to life. Put simply, it’s been a dream project to work on something that, as she puts it, “entertains the world”.

We all have an idea of what fashion in Tokyo entails. Harajuku girls, manga-inspired makeup, doll-like dresses embellished with lace, Muji minimalism and bold, Comme Des Garçons silhouettes. Our perceptions of Japanese fashion from the West understand boldness and visual excess, yet there are innumerable nuances within Tokyo’s fashion scene as seen through labels such as Pugment.

As we near the end of our look back at 2018, we’ve enlisted journalist, broadcaster and editor Kieran Yates to look back over the key moments which shaped the creative (and wider) world over the past 12 months. From logo-heavy football shirts to Love Island, these are some of the stories that got us talking.

Shinwoo Park has been running the graphic design studio Paperpress since 2016 in Seoul. Working across a variety of disciplines wherever graphics are concerned, from the tongue of a shoe trainer to pin badges and poster design, Paperpress locates the point where “graphic design and description overlap” to create expressive designs that suit each client.

“I think with photography you can create a whole fantasy around yourself, so when I design a set and develop a character for a picture, I try to create an entirely new reality for me and the people I’m portraying, hopefully, a reality that is better than the actual one,” explains México City-based photographer Andrés Mañon. With several commissions for the likes of i-D Mexico under his belt, Andrés’ work does exactly as he intends, building elaborate worlds full of over-saturated, yet altogether compelling characters.

Our final speaker at Nicer Tuesdays November was Leipzig-based illustrator, Anna Haifisch. After seeing Anna speak at Eike König’s After School Club in Offenbach during July this year, we quickly realised the illustrator was a must to speak at Nicer Tuesdays before the year was up, also doubling up as the first comic reading we’ve had at our monthly event.

Joining us at Nicer Tuesdays November was Yuri Suzuki, shortly after the designer’s slightly surprising announcement that he was the newest Pentagram partner. Even Yuri notes how the decision for him to join the design partnership was a surprise to himself, recalling how when the initial conversation began his first question was “Why!?”

A little while ago, art director Anna Sullivan spotted an old vintage postcard featuring stilt walking shepherds. Stilt walking shepherds! Curious, as anyone in their right mind would be, Anna started digging into why these shepherds were atop stilts — which we now only associate with childhood games and circus performances — to herd sheep.

It’s Nice That favourites Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared created by the fun-filled directors Becky and Joe, will head to Sundance Film Festival next year. The Blinkink creative duo will premier their Youtube-hit series at the largest independent film festival in the US this January 2019.

Boiler Room is yet again shedding light on important social issues in a part of the world that is little known to us. The second film for its Contemporary Scenes series is To Live & Die in Manila and sees music orientated artists from the Filipino capital emotively express their frustrations under the bloodbaths incurred by the president of just over two years, Rodrigo Duterte.

New York based producer and DJ Anthony Naples has been an It’s Nice That favourite ever since we first heard the effervescent Mad Disrespect on some sweaty dancefloor somewhere back in 2012. We were hooked from that half-remembered moment on.

Yung Hua Chen’s photography is seductive and cinematic. The Taipei-based photographer captures alluring portraits for fashion designers and also, purely for the love of the medium. Recently, she’s been shooting her lover Chihtian Shih. She tells It’s Nice That, “he inspires me in many kinds of ways. He’s an actor and plays many different roles that give him different life experiences.” Chihtian’s brooding good looks are seen in all types of situations; dappled in a dusky sunlight, walking the streets of Taipei, peacefully sleeping still in his clothes.

For the past ten years, graphic and spacial design studio Julia has been producing work for clients from the cultural and commercial sector, including everything from typefaces to books, magazines, exhibitions, posters, websites and identities. Having been formed in late 2008 by Valerio Di Lucente, Erwan Lhuissier and Hugo Timm, Valerio and Erwan (who have been running the studio since May of this year) are celebrating a decade of Julia. We caught up with the pair to find out a bit more about how their work has taken shape over this time.

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